Salsa Cycles Fargo Page

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Well, it is here and I survived it. Nothing turned to stone, no major disasters, and the earth is still rotating on its axis. Got up late again, stayed up pretty late too. At the stroke of midnight I was working on a bicycle. Not very romantic, huh?

Yesterday I took the kids sledding. Man! The snow was so fast! Packed down and shiny like glass. I didn't have a sliding device of my own, but I commandeered one of the kids saucers and went down twice. Actually caught some air! It doesn't look as though the snow will be good for this kind of stuff much longer though, or that it will even be around. It appears as though an early January thaw is going to be upon us by the weekend. I hope the trails get cleared out, but that is a lot to hope for! At least the gravel roads should clear out enough to make for some good long training rides.

Oh yeah, the bike I was working on last night? The Badger. I figured out a gearing system for it. I used some really old stuff, some used stuff, stuff downloaded from a friend, and I'll be using something coming to me third hand on a brand new piece of equipment. Sound mixed up? Well, let's just say it will certainly be interesting, and I'll probably be accused of being a retro-grouch! I will tell you that it will be a 2 X 9 set up with a 12-34 cassette and a 32 X 42 front chain ring set up. The crank I got a hold of dictated the 2 X 9, which I was strongly leaning towards anyway, and I never really use the granny gear. Almost never. So a 2 X 9 should be just fine for me.

I'm kind of excited about the new silver option on the Origin 8 Gary Bar. It will work out perfectly with the silver Thomson stem I have on the Badger already. I have to see when that becomes available. For now I have the black Gary Bar on there, so at least I can continue on with the project. Next up for acquisition, the brakes!